Post Goes Pagan: Odin Retires, Puzzled

[Kim L. Serkes]

At 4:07 PM -0400 9/10/97, Sherwood, Harrison wrote:

RE the WashPost's article "Tribes, Scientists Battle Over Ancient Bones"
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-09/10/082l-091097-idx.html)

He left out some of the delicious prose nuggets, such as: "The coroner in
turn contacted a local anthropological consultant named Jim Chatters.
Chatters, >>an intense thinker with a philosophic bent<< and a PhD from the
University of Washington" [...]

I'm very concerned about Dr. Chatters's bent philosophic; that sort of
condition could lead to intense (if not necessarily deep) thinking in
almost anyone.

Then:
>The Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the riverfront where the bones were
>found, confiscated the skeleton on behalf of a five-tribe coalition, led
>by the
>Umatillas.

This leads inescapably to the image of Col. Bat Guano, leading his crack
team of commandos into the Coroner's office. "Hand over those bones, or
your Coke machine gets it!"

Well, we drift rather far from the purpose of this list, but before putting
in our oars and pulling back into the Bay of Pynchon, let us note that both
the pagan loonies and the home-grown loonies had duelling "services" over
these bones. Those unfortunate, small-minded scientists, trapped by their
linear Western logic, expressed "concern" that organic material from these
ceremonies (cedar boughs, etc.) might contaminate the bones. Pish and tush.
As one of the Native Americans said when asked whether it might not be
interesting to know about people who lived 9,000 years ago, "No. We already
know our history."